Archery bow sights generally include one or more movable pins that are secured to a support structure. The support structure is constructed to be attached to a bow. The sight is mounted to a bow so that when the bow string is drawn, the archer can look through the sight and align a pin or tip of a sight pin with a target. Regardless of the number of sight pins, for an archer to accurately utilize the sight, the sight must first be “sighted-in” or have the position of the pins associated with the trajectory of an arrow for given shooting conditions. Commonly, sighting-in a bow requires that an archer sequentially fire a number of arrows under normal conditions and yardages while incrementally adjusting the orientation of the sight pin relative to the bow. For sights equipped with a number of sight pins, this can be a time-consuming and tedious process.
The performance of bow sights equipped with a single sight pin also relies on the ability of the archer to return the sight pin to any number of predetermined positions. During the sighting-in process, the archer adjusts the position of the sight pin relative to the supporting structure for an archer's relative position or distance to an intended target. Frequently, the position of the sight is associated with a distance, or yardage, of the archer from the target. Many archers select predefined yardages such as 10, 20, 30, and 40 yards as the preset values for the sight pin or pins. Understandably, depending on the complexity of the indexing system associated with the predefined yardages, a sight could be provided with a number of yardage indicators. Additionally, rather than being generally even distance values, the yardages could also be tailored to an archer's personal preferences. These random yardage or distance values are commonly associated with shooting conditions such as the distance from a stand to a bait location or stationary target.
Particularly for the sights equipped with a single variable position sight pin, the ability of the sight to index the position of the pin relative to the bow is an important consideration for an archer shooting under various conditions. Particularly in target shooting as compared to game shooting, an archer may be required to perform shots at various yardages over a relatively short duration. Such target shooting occasionally requires the archer to shoot a first target at a first yardage, shoot a second target at another yardage, and then shoot a third target more proximate to the first yardage. Accordingly, it is desired to provide a bow sight with good repeatability characteristics as to the position of the sight pin relative to a preset sight pin orientation.
Regardless of the number of predefined yardages and the yardage values associated with the predefined pin positions, the archer's performance also relies on the archer's ability to estimate the distance to a target. As an example, an archer calibrates a sight position at 20 yards from target. During shooting, the archer overlays the site pin with the intended destination of the arrow. Provided the conditions are nearly identical to the conditions during which the archer set the sight pin, the arrow should hit the target in the intended area. If however, the archer is at a location 23 yards from the target, the archer must estimate the position of the sight pin on the target such that the arrow strikes the intended target zone. Otherwise, sighting the target with the 20 yard sight pin would result in a strike below the desired impact or target area. Understandably, this sight estimation process can detrimentally effect the accuracy of the archer. Accordingly, it is also desired to provide an archery sight that accommodates various shooting distances aside from the one or more preset sight pin reference positions.